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Faces of the Recovery Act

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Jobs by the 1000s

"Hector"

The HCTRW Reactor at Savannah River Site is one of the primary projects being worked on through the Recovery Act.

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NOvA Project

Through the Recovery Act, the Office of Science is facilitating their NOvA Project in Orr, Minnesota.

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NOvA Project 2

Because of the infusion of workers, the town has seen a trickle-down effect ..stores, hotels, and the town of Orr is doing more business.

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Moab UMTRA Project

The photo is of workers at the Crescent Junction disposal site in Utah in front of the container holding the one millionth ton of uranium mill tailings that was transported from the pile in Moab, Utah. The container is being prepared to be dumped in the disposal cell. Of the first million tons transported for permanent disposal, almost half, or 490,000 tons, was shipped using Recovery Act funding.

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James Hall

James Hall, 43, is no stranger to employment hardships. As a sheet-metal worker, he has become accustomed to spending extended amounts of time away from home to support his family. Having worked throughout the United States as a skilled member of his craft, Hall is thankful for the recent employment opportunities at SRS funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Bonneville Power Administration

The first 10 miles of the McNary-John Day Transmission Line by Highway 10 in Washington State.

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Dr. Don Sadoway

At MIT, Dr. Don Sadoway received a grant through ARPA-E to develop all liquid metal batteries.

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Cody Friesen

Cody's team at Arizona State received a grant for the Advanced Research and Development of Metal-Air Batteries through ARPA-E. Says Cody: "This has the potential to dramatically decrease the cost of energy storage. A cell phone could remain powered for as long a month without charging."

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Going Green in the Virgin Islands 2

VIRGIN ISLANDS - Students in the solar water heating installation training program installing solar water heaters on homes for the elderly on St. Croix.

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Going Green in the Virgin Islands 1

VIRGIN ISLANDS - Students in the solar water heating installation training program installing solar water heaters on homes for the elderly on St. Croix.

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Going Green in the Virgin Islands 3

Delegate Donna Christian and Under Secretary of Interior Babuta with students who described the training program to the dignitaries.

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SRS Job Fair

Savannah River Site has attracted tens of thousands of South Carolina and Georgia residents through their job fairs.

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Annendale Job Fair

More than 1000 people attended the Allendale Job Fair that was hosted by the Savannah River Site. By late May, the Site received more than 12,500 resumes from eager job seekers.

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Dr. Michael Harvey

Dr. Michael Harvey, chief technical officer of XeroCoat Inc. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded XeroCoat Inc. a grant to develop a method for applying its patented anti-reflective coating technology directly onto assembled solar panels. “We may have had to push the timeline out to three years, and then there’s a very good chance we’d miss the market opportunities because we know other companies in China and Japan are trying to develop this — we now believe we have a head start instead of having to play catch-up.”

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Pete Boogaart

Pete, who’s a married empty-nester with four kids, lost his job in January after keeping Americans safe and comfortable by testing car parts for the last 15 years. But through volunteering for a local action agency, he retooled his old skills and scored a new job as a weatherization inspector.

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Wendy Van Zandbergen

Wendy Van Zandbergen, a single mother from Durant, OK teetered on the verge of losing her house after almost nine months of unemployment. Now Wendy works as an energy education trainer for Big Five Community Services Inc., her local community action agency.

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Bob Fahlberg

Bob Fahlberg, a field investigator at Hanford, conducts systematic foot-based land surveys (walkdowns) to identify potential waste sites in the River Corridor. Under the ARRA work scope, Fahlberg recently led a walkdown of six waste sites at IU2/IU6 Segment 1 to collect site-specific information, such as the waste site dimensions. Results will help determine if a potential site needs to be cleaned up. If so, it will be added to the list for remediation.

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Charlie Skiba

Charlie Skiba spent the past 16 months in “self-imposed semi-retirement” before he was hired in June as a senior construction subcontract engineer for WCH.
Charlie is part of the ERDF expansion team at Hanford. The expansion project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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Ty Rose

When Ty Rose, a platoon commander with the U.S. Marine Corps, finished his tour in Iraq and returned from the service in 2008, he found himself out of work. Ty attended a Service Academy Career Conference in May 2009 at Washington D.C., where he met with representatives from CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company and was offered a job on the spot as a field work supervisor at the Hanford Site in Washington State. “Recovery Act funds have put me in a job, it’s taking care of my family, and it’s giving hope"

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DX GW Treatment 1

New hires at Hanford site in Washington.

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DX GW Treatment 2

The Hanford site is located on 586 square miles in southeastern Washington State

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Tim Melloh and Kevin Hooks

New hires at the Savannah River Site, Tim and Kevin are originally from Newport, IN.

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Jamie Bing

Jamie Bing is a new hire at the Savannah River Site.

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Kera Woods

Kera Woods is a new hire at the Savannah River Site.

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Janella Bradley

Janella Bradley is a new hire at the Savannah River Site.

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Sammy Chu at the National Weatherization Conference

"We’re creating local jobs, hyper, local jobs. You know these are jobs that can’t be outsourced. They’re, they’re smaller scope jobs and odd jobs that big construction companies are coming out of state to do. It’s people from the community. It’s people from the area."

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Tony Gill at the National Weatherization Conference

"In my opinion, the greatest benefit to the weatherization program eventually is going to be changing the way America builds."

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Zachary Stewart at the National Weatherization Conference

"So, I cashed in my 401k and the little severance I had left and I made a gamble. It was either make your mortgage payment, or go down and try to take some classes. That was the break that I needed. That was my networking opportunity to get some face time with somebody. I’m so thankful for it." This is what I want to do. I’m fortunate that I found something. Also, not only to support my family, but where I want to go the rest of my life, like this is what interests me. I love doing the problem solving and I found my career, you know."

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MIT

ARPA-E funding will be used to develop design parameters and a working prototype that can store and deliver energy on the roder of 5-kWh. The device will use cheap and domestically abundant materials and is expected to attain unprecedented current density and lifespan at an acceptably low cost. If successful, this project will facilitate the widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies in the United States.

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Delphi Automotive Systems

Delphi Automotive Systems is developing a novel electrical energy conversion device that will be 50 percent more efficient than existing silicon-based technologies. If successful, this project will improve the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of hybrid/electric vehicles and renewable energy systems (e.g., solar, wind).

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Mike Raab

Agrivida's President and co-founder Mike Raab. His company is using ARPA-E funding to develop a new method for converting plant biomass into useful feedstock for the production of bio-fuels. If successful, this project could increase domestic production of renewable bio-fuels and reduce our nation's dependence upon foreign sources of fossil fuels.

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1366

With ARPA-E’s financial support, 1366 Technologies is developing a novel wafer manufacturing process that plucks wafers directly from molten silicon and could cut the cost of installed photovoltaic systems in half and reduce wafer capital costs by 90 percent. If successful, this project could increase domestic energy production and generate many new jobs in the solar photovoltaic industry.

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Univenture

Univenture and Algaeventure Systems have designed and fabricated an innovative algae harvesting dewatering and drying system that is far more energy-efficient than existing techniques. If successful, this technology could dramatically reduce the energy cost necessary to harvest, dewater, dry algae and potentially transform the economics of algae-based bio-fuel production, and generate new jobs.

The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR’s capacity into Manhattan, and dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to the east side of Manhattan.

The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR’s capacity into Manhattan, and dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to the east side of Manhattan.

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a welder at work on what will be the passenger concourse of the new LIRR station.

The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR’s capacity into Manhattan, and dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to the east side of Manhattan.